Feral Paradise: War of the Demon King v2
by Thait
Summary: version 2.0, prequel to Feral Paradise. Ranma and Genma's training trip comes to a screeching halt when they become involved in a war to save Jusenkyo. Ranma swears vengance, Genma wants to flee, and the three tribes merely want to survive.
1. Chapter 1

HELLO! Well as you can see I'm trying to rewrite the war of the demon king, if you're asking "why would you do that?" Well I took some the reviews to heart and suddenly realized that they were right, the story was too bare and sounded too much like a rushed summery of the actual war, I figured this after reading the story through. So, in an effort to try and fix this I have begun to rewrite the story in the hopes that I can get it to the level of something really good. Sorry for the wait but winter is the easiest for me to write as the rest of the year is pretty hectic, not to mention I get lazy when I have to work harder in spring, summer and the beginning of fall.

So without further stalling I present the rewritten first chapter of the War of the Demon King.

As usual I own nothing of the Ranma series.

CHAPTER 1

Sun shone gently upon the ground and sparkled off of the 1000 pools of Jusenkyo while the birds chirped in the trees planted near the guide's house. The guide sat blowing smoke rings while watching the two martial artists bounce from pole to pole while fighting one another over the springs. The man was surprised that they had continued the fighting this long with no ill affects from Jusenkyo, this lent itself either to them being very strong in spirit, or being blessed in some way that Jusenkyo hadn't affected them with a curse yet. He would have continued in his efforts to warn them of the danger of their actions but the feelings he received from Jusenkyo itself told him not to.

Ranma sprang from one pole to another readying himself for another assault and wondering why the guide had seemed so insistent that they not train here before suddenly going quiet and not complaining anymore. The boy dodged another attack and launched a kick into Genma's gut that knocked the older martial artists onto a different pole from which he sprang into another assault. The two fighters jumped form pole to pole while trading blows and Ranma was starting to wonder when his father would leave an opening when the old man suddenly overextended himself allowing Ranma to grip the end of one pole with his right hand and slam both feet into Genma's gut tossing him into one of the springs nearby.

The water rippled slightly then sat still before bursting upwards in a rushing torrent that crashed down into the spring once again leaving a figure standing upon the pole that extended up from within the water. Ranma blinked, then blinked again, his surprise was plastered right across his face as he stared in shock at the massive panda standing on a simple bamboo pole with the sunlight glinting off of water droplets in its fur. Ranma wasn't stupid and it took him only a few seconds to link the guides frantic first shouting from days ago to the panda that was still wearing part of his fathers clothes as well as his glasses. Even with the quick linking of the springs with what had happened to his father he was almost to slow to avoid the first punch the panda threw at him.

It was only a swift retreat across the length of Jusenkyo that had so far saved Ranma from getting dunked as his now panda father continued his attack. Ranma blocked twelve punches and dodged back across several more poles until he reached the edge of the springs in his area and leapt to the ground giving thanks for solid footing with no water nearby. He looked up in time to see his father leaping from the last pole towards him "POPS! Look at ya! Yer a panda!" The shout seemed to have the desired effect of making Genma finally look at himself and saw the fur and different body, unfortunately for Genma he was still airborne when he looked. It was the first time, but probably wouldn't be the last, that Ranma got to see a panda plow head on into the ground.

"Young mister customer is lucky, whoever fall in spring take body of whatever last drowned there. Older mister customer unlucky, he fall in spring of drowned panda, very tragic tale of panda who drown in spring over 2000 year ago." The guide was happy he finally got to do what he was paid for, informing people of their own stupidity.

"You could have gotten me cursed you ass!" The chase that started afterwards was one that the guide would likely be telling his grandkids about years later.

Ryoga stood staring down into the valley below, his wandering had led him many places around the world that he had no intention of actually being but it had always led him closer to that dishonorable Saotome who had run out on their fight. The lost boy continued to star downwards wondering why he had such trouble reaching wherever he was trying to get to. Even though his parents were worse off than himself he had always felt like this bad sense of direction was somehow mocking him and only him, and worse still were the times he had had to ask Ranma to lead him home from school.

Sharp hearing picked up the crashes through bushes nearby and the martial artist spun around dropping his pack and bringing his umbrella to bear on the trees where the noise was coming from. Seconds later a large furry form erupted from the leaves of a bush and dashed across the rocky cliff in front of Ryoga leaving a large trail of broken twigs and fallen leaves behind him. While Ryoga had no idea why a panda would be acting so strange he didn't have much time to contemplate it as the bushes burst open again, this time to allow a pigtailed teenager in white that dashed directly towards the panda.

"Get back here and accept yer beating like a man pops!" The boy's voice and bad grammar were a dead giveaway to Ryoga, not to mention the pigtail.

"Saotome! You won't escape this time!" Ryoga leapt forward crossing the distance swiftly and launched a kick at the other boys head, a kick that swept through nothing but open air as the other boy ducked down then dodged back to look at Ryoga. "Do I know ya?"

The slight distraction was all the panda needed to attack and it leapt forward swinging a wooden sign that materialized in its hand from seeming nowhere and bore the words Respect your father! Unfortunately for Ryoga he had charged forward, angry that Ranma was claiming not to know him. The swung sign slammed into Ryoga's face as Ranma leapt up to dodge Ryoga's charge and the lost boy was sent tumbling over the edge of the cliff saved only by the fact that a bandanna he had been holding snagged a rock. Not for the first time Ryoga wondered what he had done to deserve things like this happening to him, first there was that angry old lady in some city called Houston, and then the weird guy in a place called London.

The lost boy struggled to find a handhold as his bandanna began to tear from the weight of himself plus his umbrella. With a last loud rip the bandanna tore and Ryoga began to fall only to have his descent stopped by Ranma diving forward and snagging his wrist before he could fall too far. The lost boy struggled to pull himself up with Ranma's help only to have the cliff give way from underneath both of them and send them tumbling towards the pools below.

The Guide had seen the two falling from the top of the cliff and winced slightly at each rock hit on the way down. It was obvious that the young martial artist who had seen his father change was trying to use the cliff to kick off from and steady his descent into something that wouldn't land him in a pool. Unfortunately for both of the boys Jusenkyo had something equaling a primitive mind of its own and both ended up splashing down in pools that hadn't ever been used.

Ranma struggled to pull himself free of the water desperately wishing that nothing had happened but realizing that the weird tingle that he had felt when sinking into the water had most likely been the pools magic activating. Fingers dug into yielding mud as he slipped deeper into the pool having trouble swimming higher he finally gave up and simply planted his feet into the mud at the bottom of the pool, crouched, and pushed off with his full strength. The now cursed boy burst free of the clinging water and mud to land on the bamboo pole sticking up from the mud allowing him his first look at himself, or in this case herself.

Strands of wet gray hair tumbled into her eyes as her hand rose to her head sliding through hair and finding pointed ears before sliding back and finding out that the pigtail was now undone. The first thing Ranma found out was that while he was now a she, a bad thing according to Genma's teachings, there wasn't any feeling of weakness or any other such thing. In fact the cursed martial artists' eyesight was quite a bit sharper than it had been before the unfortunate dunk in the spring. Not that any advancement made Ranma feel better about what had just happened though it allowed her to sense the approaching guide as well as keep a watch on the large fur covered form that burst from the pool the other boy had fallen in.

With a sigh the Guide looked at the two new customers to the springs and shook his head turning to the large werewolf first "Unfortunate new young mister customer fall in spring of drowned werewolf, very happy tale of vicious werewolf that was drowned in spring by wolf demoness over 7000 year ago." The Guide turned to look at Ranma where she was still perched atop the bamboo pole "That one spring of drowned wolf demoness, very happy tale of wolf demoness who was drowned by Musk warriors after she drown werewolf over 7000 year ago."

Ranma before her dunk would have taken a good ten minutes at best to figure out who the other boy was, as it was, her demon mind was much sharper than her human one and it made the link almost immediately. And since it had been Ryoga that she was trying to save when she fell she immediately blamed her old onetime friend. The large new werewolf was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on when he sensed a very large danger coming from his right causing him to turn and look. Ryoga at first didn't understand why the beautiful grey haired girl was looking at him like she wanted to kill him until he put together the fact that Ranma had been falling near him and that that spring was pretty much were the other boy would have fallen.

"Ryoga Hibiki you…!" The new demoness couldn't think of anything to say so simply leapt off the bamboo pole with a shout and tried kick Ryoga who ducked under the attack and took off running. The guide sighed as he watched the two fighters disappear swiftly into the cliffs in a chase rivaling the first.

"As can see, curse is reversible with hot water." The guide was finally getting to explain the situation to the three travelers after they had all stumbled in four hours later looking somewhat exhausted and torn up from their run trough the trees and rocks. "Cursed form will return with cold water, is no cure known to any who have come here."

"This is all your fault Ranma." Ryoga's jump to attack was cut short by Ranma catching his punch and slamming him into the floor of the guides hut "My fault! Why the heck is it my fault?!"

"You knocked me into that stupid pool, if you hadn't forced me to follow you I wouldn't have gotten cursed!" The lost boy pushed himself up throwing Ranma off and launching a kick towards the other boy's gut that ended up with Ranma dropping to the floor to dodge it.

"What the hell are you talking about? Pops is the one that knocked you off I tried to save your sorry ass!" Ryoga started to look thoughtful "If its anyone fault we got cursed it's his!"

(Now boys, lets not be hasty.) The still transformed man held up a sign producing it from somewhere with the writing already written on it, somehow. Both boys glowered angrily at the panda and a second later the guide sighed as his door was torn from its hinges for the 78th time in the last ten years. After waiting for a few minutes the guide went to retrieve his tools to fix the door noticing that the two young customers had grabbed their packs before taking off after the older man. With a shrug the portly man went back to work figuring that they would come back if they felt they needed to.

"we're lost" Ranma stated the obvious as she looked around trying to find their current position by examining the sun while trying to figure out if the river pops had gotten them wet in had been something they had passed before.

2 HOURS LATER

"It was a good thing I found those hot springs for us wasn't it boys." Genma puffed out his chest at his own achievement.

"Yeah real great job pops. Though come to think of it we wouldn't even have needed them if you hadn't gotten us CURSED!!" He shouted the last word in his fathers right ear before stalking back towards were he had put his pack.

"Where do you think the guides place is?" Again Ranma tried to find a direction that might take them back to Jusenkyo and the guide.

"Who cares boy, it just means we don't have to pay him anything. Now let's get going, I have this map that should help us get out of here without running into danger."

2 HOURS LATER

"NOT RUNNING INTO DANGER HUH!!" Ranma screamed as he dodged another strike from a snake the size of a semi truck and struggled to duck under a swipe from a bear the size of a house while making sure Ryoga didn't get lost.

2 HOURS LATER

"I'LL KILL YOU POPS!!!" The cursed martial artist was currently trying to disengage himself from a plant that was doing its best to eat him while Ryoga used his belt to cut away at the vines.

2 HOURS LATER

Ranma rolled around on the ground laughing as a Genma-panda tried to fight off a female panda that seemed to find him good looking.

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

Ranma muttered curses as she stalked through the forest shooting glares at her father for splashing her and Ryoga earlier in a bout of 'if you can't dodge the water you're slacking off.'

Bare feet kicked up dust as they continued to plod along the path that Ryoga and Ranma had unanimously declared a hunting trail that had been stumbled across by Ryoga in one of his more lost moments. Keeping an eye on Ryoga had actually gotten somewhat easier as his curse seemed to make him get lost less often than he had before he had gotten it, not that his getting lost was any less frustrating as it normally meant that Ranma had to go find him. The boring walk had been going on for days and Ranma was starting to get really annoyed with Genma's constant badgering and trying to blame the curses on Ranma instead of on his own stupidity.

The curses, now there was a bit of magic that she could have done without for the rest of her life with no problem. Overall she had found that her cursed form seemed better at everything than her birth form, her cursed form was stronger, faster, more durable, had much better eyesight and sense of smell. But she had also noticed that she was getting a more volatile temper and it wasn't something she had really noticed until she turned back to her birth form and suddenly realized that things that had brought anger or severe annoyance while a girl didn't really cause any problems while male. Ryoga had changed some as well, most notably his ability to move around without getting as lost at every turn but he as well had seemed to have a more hair trigger temper when in cursed form.

Both boys wished they could get rid of the curses completely but the guide had said that Jusenkyo had no cure. He said that everyone he had ever conversed with who had the power to study the place said that its power was immense and unable to be countered by any means they knew of.

The last of the trees thinned out and the three found themselves standing within a large cleared area that led up to the outskirts of a village. See boys, I told you I knew where we were going. The panda happened to actually look at the cursed boys and froze as he noticed the anger shown there from both of them. The gray haired girl looked to be glowing with a dark power and was producing a surprisingly realistic sounding wolfs growl and the werewolf was looking none to happy as well. The currently panda formed martial artist took the better part of valor and bolted into the buildings with both fighters close on his heels.

Ranma moved silently down the dirt street heading towards the faint cheers and other sounds coming from what she assumed was the center of the village, more like a small town than a village from what she could see. The two cursed boys had caught up to Genma fairly quickly and pounded him for awhile before moving on into the village trying to find any people they could talk to due to being lost fairly badly. The cheering was getting louder and louder as they approached the center of the village and they could finally see why as well.

Set in the center of a large area that was obviously set up for just such things there were four large logs buried in the ground with thick ropes leading from each one to another log suspended from the ground by the ropes. Said log was currently swaying as the two combatants on it fought a brutal fight for supremacy. Ranma had to admit that the violet haired girl was holding her own pretty good against the other combatant, a person that at first Ranma hadn't even though was female until she heard the woman shout something in Chinese and attack. Both the young martial artists watched the fight closely wondering how long the larger woman was going to hold out to the younger girl's superior skill. Ranma smirked as she watched the larger woman tossed skyward by a quick strike and then turned to take in the congratulations of the crowd. That smirk vanished as the girl tossed one of her maces at the table that the panda had started eating from, followed by shouted Chinese which was completely incomprehensible to Ranma, Ryoga or Genma.

"Stupid panda!" Ranma turned to the girl and tried to think of a way out of what was likely to be a bad situation. "I'm sorry we don't speak Chinese."

"She demands to know why your pet is eating her prize." The old woman pogoed across the ground to stop in front of them "That food is the prize for the winner of the tournament and the panda has now eaten it, she has already demanded you hand over the pet."

(AH! She's like the master, run for it boys!) The panda made it three feet before he was smashed to the ground by a strike form the old woman's staff.

"Well then, if I fight her and win then the prize would be mine right." The cursed martial artist didn't even wait for an answer and jumped to the challenge log followed swiftly by the violet haired girl. The two faced off neither moving for several moments while trying to size up the other and figure out how to end the fight swiftly. Ranma was sure she could take the girl out swiftly due partially to the girl being tired from fighting as well as not being as well trained as Ranma herself, at least from what Ranma had seen. What was making her wary though was the strange sensation that something really really bad was about to happen.

* * *

UKNOWN PLANE 

Shadowed light shone down through light grey clouds onto a city that stretched from horizon to horizon its edges far beyond the sight of even the demons that currently inhabited the shattered buildings. Giant towers made from golden stone rose upwards into the sky so far that once upon the top of one even the larger buildings of the city looked to be tiny and it was upon one of these towers a being stood dressed in grey plate armor with demons gathered behind him watching the sky expectantly. The grey armored demon threw small stones from one hand skyward and watched as they took the form of a circle and began to spin faster and faster until a circle of blue and red lights sprang to life and the very air inside the circle was torn asunder.

The demon in grey stared upwards through the hole in the fabric of reality that was now linking his prison to the world at large and with a triumphant shout he pointed at the hole he had created and watched his demons begin to leap through. The demon watched as more and more of his forces poured out before heading back to the magical lift that had brought them up and began to go down to return to his palace. The problem was that he himself couldn't travel through the rift and it was taking a large portion of his power to hold open gate in the first place. The best estimates he had been able to figure was that it would take a full year before he had the power to both hold the portal open and allow himself to go through, unless his forces could find an alternate route for him to leave through. "Either way" The demon spoke its voice echoing off the halls "My imprisonment is OVER!"

* * *

Descriptions. 

Spring of drowned werewolf: A very happy, tragic if you were the wolf, spring created when a very vicious werewolf went on a rampage throughout the lands of the three tribes until he came across the sleeping form of a very beautiful wolf demon. Believing he could ravage the beauty he approached only to have the wolf demon spring awake and attack. The battle raged for over twenty hours before the almost evenly matched opponents reached Jusenkyo and the demoness drowned the werewolf in a spring. Unlike normal werewolves the person drowned in this spring has no problem being in wolf form without a full moon and does not have to worry about the feral state that other werewolves suffer from and are even capable of speech.

Spring of drowned female wolf demon: The spring, created when the musk royals attacked the weakened wolf demoness, has never been accessed by anyone but Ranma and it is somewhat a good thing. Ranma in demon form is more prone to violence and rash judgment though she has a sharp tactical mind she is willing to almost throw her life away before really starting to think of a plan of action. The remnants of the demons mind give Ranma a somewhat jaded view of the world and he begins to act somewhat different after receiving the curse itself. Though Ranma is still reluctant to take a life unless it is demonic or undead, his somewhat darker view of the world makes him more dangerous than he would be normally but he also is very loyal to those he considers allies. There is also a dark side to Ranma's curse that he knows nothing about and only manages to feel every now and then.

Author notes:

Alright, in the original version I had Ranma looking as he would if he had been born a female wolf demon but in my rewrite I had a strike of what I hope is brilliance and have changed things somewhat. Yes I still hold to the belief that most springs will make the victim as they would have been if born that way, but that sort of limits me when I want to do something. So, in this telling there are certain springs that give a curse that makes the person like the one who drowned there. This isn't a total change, Ranma doesn't look exactly like the wolf demon that drowned in the spring and that will be gotten into in one of the other chapters. I still love the springs mix idea so as before there will be no cure in Jusenkyo for the cursed individuals.


	2. Chapter 2

Alright, here's the rewritten chapter 2. This is just the start of the, hopefully more fleshed out version of this story and updates wont be as fast as my original story was moving before my break. Well hopefully the more fleshed out version will be better and I will continue to work on it so I can move on. My next chapters should get longer, and since i have covered most of the territory in my other version i know where i am going so writing them will be eaiser, just need to be fleshed out more.

As usual don't own anything from Ranma ½.

* * *

CHAPTER 2 

The ancient Amazon watched the tournament as her great granddaughter fought the latest challenger though her attention was soon pulled to the three strangers that wandered into the village. The Amazon's had lived near Jusenkyo for so long that the appearance of a demon, a werewolf, and a panda walking on its hind legs didn't do much more than gather a few glances and a word or two before looking back to the tournament fight. There were some very telling things about the three that made it obvious that they were cursed humans. By the looks they were most likely wandering martial artists who hadn't taken the warnings into account when they had went to Jusenkyo and thusly got cursed.

The girl was interesting, standing nearly six feet tall she bore herself with a deadly grace that only the best of fighters could match and seemed to exude a strange mixture of aura that worried the elder. The girl was lean, with grey hair that hung in a braid down her back nearly reaching her waist and with bangs hanging down to shadow golden eyes that surprisingly bore a more catlike look. The girl bore a single slash of black on one cheek and the smaller fangs of the royal wolf demons. The girl was surprisingly busty for a wolf demon but her lack of the arrogance of a normal demon would have been a dead giveaway to anyone that knew of such things that the girl wasn't a real wolf demon.

The elders shifted her view to the other with a slightly more worried view as the last time a werecreature had come through the village they had had to be fought by six of the elders to drive them out. The werewolf stood at a towering seven foot which made him taller than all but the tallest of amazons such as Dowel and bore himself with a skill that nearly matched that of the girl. The large black furred creature seemed to be staying surprisingly close to the demoness almost as if he expected to lose her if he moved away. The werewolf's face wasn't as long or as narrow as a real wolfs and its arms were longer than they should have been for a creature that size which was most likely to allow it to run on all fours if it needed it. The sharp black claws that adorned both its hands and its paws were likely very sharp and its multi-jointed legs were also set up to allow it move on two or four legs. The thick fur around its neck and the shorter tail most likely meant it was a werewolf meant for areas of snow.

Ranma stood on the log watching as the violet haired girl set herself and prepared to attack, the martial artist knew the girl was tired just from the stance and the way she carried herself and Ranma wasn't to happy about fighting a person in that condition but she figured she didn't have a choice. A second later the amazon girl charged launching swift blows at Ranma's head that the other girl ducked before sending a retaliatory kick towards the other girls head only to have her dodge and try and sweep Ranma's feet out from under her. Leaping up she angled a kick towards the girls head only to have the amazon dodge and kick her in the back as she went past almost causing Ranma to fall from the log.

It didn't take Ranma long to figure the girl was faking some of her fatigue but was also trying to end the battle as fast as possible. Beginning a charge Ranma suddenly felt a spike of pain somewhere deep in her mind nearly causing her to stumble from the log before recovering and mounting a defense against the other girl who had taken advantage of the stumble. On the ground near the fighting Cologne frowned as the grey haired girl once again reacted strangely but didn't have time to wonder about it as the ground under her staff trembled. Looking down the elder's frown deepened as the trembling became more and more pronounced, to the point were even the combatants on the challenge log felt it. Soon everyone had turned to look just as the ground cracked buckling upwards and then plummeted away into darkness taking the elder with it.

Ranma blinked in surprise at the gaping hole and realized suddenly that the stinging pain that had been growing in the back of her head had vanished. With a cry in Chinese that Ranma couldn't understand her opponent jumped down and leapt towards the hole only to have several amazons stop her while others grabbed weapons and moved warily towards the strange circle. Landing close by Ranma frowned as she moved closer and started to hear an extremely faint growling from somewhere within the hole just before the smell finally reached her nose.

"Oh man that reeks!" She jumped back waving her hand in front of her face and noticing that Ryoga was doing the same obviously trying to save his werewolf forms more sensitive nose from the horrid smell. The growling was getting louder and she realized it sounded like it was coming from something far to large to be any animal that she knew of, just as she was getting ready to defend herself the hole exploded with motion as the elder burst into view with her staff half covered in black blood and shouting something in Chinese.

The darkness in the hole was suddenly teaming with forms that burst free and tried to swarm the amazons nearby. They stood at seven to eight feet in height with dark brown leathery skin, cloven hooves on multi jointed legs and a hand that ended in three fingers each ending in thick black claws. Their heads were topped by a set of thick horns that curved out then down till they stopped at the same level as their jaws, behind those horns was a second set of horns at least two feet thick that curved out further and down complimenting the spike covered back. Their eyes and mouths were filled with flame and the tusks that jutted upwards reached at least halfway to their eyes. The creatures seemed to have an aversion to heavy clothes, wearing only a loincloth and a breastplate sometimes the chest armor was leather other times it was a simple badly hammered out heavy iron plate some of them even wielded crude axes or other weapons. The creatures were thick bodied but moved with swift efficiency that the amazons were having trouble countering at the outset, and every second more of them piled free of the strange circle.

Ranma didn't hesitate, charging forward she ducked past a clumsy grab by one of the tall demons and leveled a blow into its leather armored chest that caused the creature to crash to its knees as its breath was driven from its chest. It had taken Ranma all of ten seconds to realize that the things were demons but were completely unlike her current form, these creatures seemed to be nothing more than bloodthirsty beasts that were trying to kill every living thing near them. Ranma didn't hesitate before leveling a blow that shattered horns and crushed the side of the demons skull before she leapt towards another kicking it ten feet away and into a building. For some reason she couldn't figure out she was smiling in delight while she tossed more and more of the things into buildings or into range of amazon weapons. That euphoria was short lived though as a feeling of extreme danger spiked within her head causing her to kick her current opponent away and turn to the circle and shout a warning "GET BACK!"

The shout wasn't in time as a large form burst from the hole and slammed down on top of two of the demons its cloven hooves crushing the two lesser beings beneath it. The new demon looked the same as the others except that it was taller and bore a full set of crimson plate armor even up to a large helm that shielded much of its face. The nearest amazons stared in surprise at the thirteen foot tall creature as it drew a sword made of black flame and swung in their direction. Ranma noticed the fact that the swing was done while the demon wasn't even close to the amazons themselves but that didn't seem to stop the amazons and the few buildings they had had their back against being blasted into a charred wreck by waves of black flame.

With a cry of rage Ranma rushed across the distance smashing two other demons out of her way she leapt and slammed a kick into the demons helm protected head only to have the beast whip its arm up and grab her ankle before swinging her downward and slamming her into the ground hard enough to leave a crater. Shaking her head she tried to push herself up only to see the demon raising the sword and readying to strike, right before a large hand clamped closed on its arm and stopped it from striking.

"If anyone is going to kill Saotome it's going to be ME!" Claws on one paw tearing into the rock to anchor himself he grabbed the demons armor and heaved it into the air into a throw that landed the creature twenty feet away. Ryoga wasted no time in ripping one of the large trunks that held up the challenge log from the ground snapping the rope that was tied to the log and throwing the large chunk of lumber at the demon. With a loud splintering sound the log shattered on the plate armor of the demon who let out a grunting laugh and suddenly blurred across the distance that separated him from Ryoga fast enough that even Ranma had trouble following his movements. The creature caught the werewolf's head in one hand and then slammed him down into the rock hard enough to shatter through hardened ground and the rock below as well as crush the werewolf's head.

To Ranma the battle around her seemed to slow as she found herself staring at Ryoga's body and the blood that had started to pool around the cursed boy's body. Nearby Cologne impaled another demon before feeling a strange energy flow over the battlefield, she quickly spun towards the area she sensed the energy coming from only to see the outsider girl standing not far from the body of her friend. The elder had lived a long life and could sense the massive energies rising from the girl even as the armored demon turned and charged. Small black lightning's flickered across the grey haired martial artists form as she focused on the approaching demon and the creature took in the strange slight darkening of the girl's skin and the streaks of black that slipped through her hair as well as her black eyes. The demon swept a full strength punch straight towards to girls head only to have its armored fist slam into an immovable object, a single finger of the girl's left hand.

"You killed my friend, that wasn't a very smart thing to do." An arm went up and back fingers curling into a fist "Die." The simple word was followed by the fist flashing forward towards the demons chest with small streams of black energy trailing the girl's fist. Her arms weren't long enough for the punch to connect to the armor but it didn't have to, as soon as the fist stopped at her full reach the energy took over. The boom was loud enough to stagger the nearby combatants and had both demons and amazons turning to look where it had came from. Black faded from golden eyes and Ranma blinked in confusion as she stared at the large trench that was blasted into the ground and disappeared into the forest at the edge of the village. A Second later her mind latched onto the fact that Ryoga was dead just as the old ghoul she had talked to a short time ago started shouting something and amazon's nearby began to make a running retreat from the fighting.

Cologne watched as Dowel grabbed the large werewolf tossing his body over her shoulder before backing from the fighting near the hole. "Retreat now!" The shout was aimed at her, of that Ranma was sure but she was still confused about what had happened moments ago as well as shocked by Ryoga's death. Her confusion was enough for some demons to get the drop of her with two of them managing to pin her arms just as another red armored demon burst from the hole. The creatures holding Ranma shouted in a grating hissing language and the armored demon turned and moved their way obviously watching Ranma intensely as it approached.

With a massive heave she broke the hold of the two demons; sweeping the feet from under one she crushed its skull with a well placed kick. She slammed her elbow into the gut of the other demon causing it to drop to its knees coughing before she knocked it out then spun away darting for the nearest building as she felt heat explode against her back blasting her forward and all the way through the building ahead of her. Shaking her head the grey haired demon leapt to her feet and jumped to the top of a nearby building and began to roof hop towards the running amazons. She had gotten only four buildings away when the roof gave way underneath her and she felt a large hand grasp her waist, swing her back then slam her into the ground.

Blurred vision stared upwards at the massive demon as its arm rose and she barely managed to twist aside when the blow fell shattering the ground and kicking up a large amount of dust that allowed her to manage a stumbling escape through the village's houses. Even as she ran she could hear the crashing of wood behind her as the demon rushed through the buildings trying to catch up to her, with a flicker of thought rushing through her head she darted to one of the buildings in the beings path and readied herself for the demons exit form the building. Crouching down she clenched one fist and focused all of the strength she could summon into her arm while fortifying her body against the shock it was going to receive, she just hoped that her extra strength in this form would suffice for what she was planning.

Wood cracked outwards then shattered as a red gauntleted fist slammed through it allowing the beast easy passage through. Planks and small chunks of wood shot past her body as she held steady waiting for the running demon to move forward the two steps past the wall that she needed too execute her idea. Ranma's jump actually cratered the ground she leapt from and the demon got less than a second to realize what was coming before Ranma's uppercut snapped towards its armored head. With a crack loud enough to be heard back near the challenge log Ranma's fist slammed into a open palm as the demon moved its hand to intercept her strike.

"No way.." The shocked words had barely left her lips before the demons other arm swept back and then snapped forward slamming its fist into the side of her head.

Wood shattered as the martial artists body slammed through three different houses before impacting the ground and sliding to a stop fetching up against a small cart. She struggled to push herself up but her body wasn't reacting the way it should have and she collapsed back against he cart with her vision fading slowly as the demon tromped forward. Just as it got near her and reached down a small shriveled figure appeared in the air behind it and stabbed a long spear straight through its head before gesturing to people Ranma couldn't see. The last she saw was a young amazon picking her up and a little of the buildings beginning to rush past before she blacked out.

* * *

Descriptions. 

Shadow Ranma: Without the darkening of her skin, the black highlights in her hair and the black eyes one wouldn't even really know that she existed and simply put off any darker acts to Ranma being angry. This darker version of Ranma will only show herself when Ranma is in female form. She appears to be massively powerful and has an acute understanding of Ranma's demoness abilities. Unlike Ranma she is completely uncaring of the risks to herself by attacking large forces that she couldn't possibly defeat and will attack any enemy until either she is victorious or dead. She does not understand the idea of retreat and will actively pursue any enemy that tries to run from battle even if it means entering a trap to kill them.

Like Ranma she has a highly developed sense of honor and will protect her friends to the death. Her only problem is that her violent nature makes her fire off her most powerful attacks immediately into a fight which exhausts her staying power making her vanish into Ranma's mind once more allowing Ranma to retake control. Ranma remembers nothing of what Shadow Ranma does while she is awake and she will not show herself unless Ranma enters a state where his mind reaches an inability to cope with a current situation. Her existence is actually new, appearing only after Ranma gained his curse and is most probably caused by a minor remnant of the royal wolfs mind.

She has a modicum of influence while Ranma is in control just like Ranma's feelings and thoughts will influence her as well. It was the remnants of demon thoughts that had Ranma so happy while trashing the demons and her influences will work more into Ranma's psyche as time goes on.

Shadow Buster Shot: Shadow Ranma's attack on the red armored demon is the demonic version, at least for her, of a Shi Shi Hokodan. While Ranma and Ryoga have never learned of Ki blasts yet Shadow Ranma shows off the remnants of her demon mind with the ability to fire off a demon aura powered blast of dark energy capable of destroying, at full power, a full twelve city blocks if fired straight at the ground. Shadow Ranma when attacking the demon was not nearly at what would have been considered full power. This attack can be either a simple point and shoot, or a forward punch throwing the energy out.

Author notes.

Alright, just a few different things going on, Ranma and Genma in this story have encountered demons before, though few and far between and none as powerful as the ones here. They both have participated in demon hunts to protect people in one place or another, so Ranma is perfectly willing to attack and even kill the demons here as he sees them as nothing but beasts, like the demons he and Genma hunted before. Those few fights never prepared them for this though. Ryoga as well has met demons before and has used his strength to protect three villages by this point from a demon while in the Middle East.

My use of Shadow Ranma in the original story wasn't as good as I wanted it to be and hopefully my improvements will read better.


	3. Chapter 3

Well, here is chapter 3, okay I know this took awhile but I honestly think I have it figured out a little better now. Before I tried to simply push out a full chapter at a time or two at a time since I do have plenty of time after work and such to do it. Problem is I like to play games like final fantasy 12 and everquest 2. You can likely see how this impacts writing time, plus the time I spend reading fanfiction as well. Well what happens is I get caught up reading, watching TV or playing video games and suddenly I haven't the time to write. Well I figured out how to get around that, by writing for a short time and building the chapter over days instead of trying to push it all out at once. Hopefully this will allow me to get more done faster.

As usual I own nothing of Ranma ½. All the other creatures in my story are my own creation as well as their back stories.

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CHAPTER 3 

He was falling, that was the only way to think of it as darkness rushed past faster and faster until he suddenly jerked to a stop and found himself standing upon black ground. Everywhere he looked was filled with darkness except around himself in a ten foot radius of light and Ranma was starting to wonder if he had died, a glance around revealed nothing but blackened charred ground that extended outwards in all directions from where he was standing. Kneeling down he ran his fingers across the dirt only to have it crumble to ash and blow away in a breeze that sprang up from nowhere. It was at that moment that the martial artist realized that his hand was very small, smaller than it should have been, and looked himself over finding that he was back to being an eight year old.

"What the heck!" The shout flew outwards as the boy stared down at his small body and the white gi he was currently wearing, the same gi he had worn when he was that age.

After an hour of sitting still Ranma found himself starting to get bored and was about to move when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck starting to rise and spun around to stare out into the dark. Two large golden eyes bearing slit pupils glared out of the darkness at him causing him to scramble backwards and his fear only grew as a large cat's paw thumped down into the light that surrounded him. Fingers blackened by ash twisting on the ground the boy spun and prepared to dash into the darkness on the other side of the light only to find another set of large golden eyes staring outwards, though these had normal pupils. Spinning back around Ranma found himself staring at a massive cat that stood six foot tall at the shoulder and moved forward with a obviously harmful intent. The boys stumbling backwards tripped him up and he tripped ending up on the ground just as the cat pounced. Throwing up an arm to defend himself, even though he knew it was futile, was a reflex action but it was also unneeded as the cat hadn't even jumped half the distance before a giant wolf as large as the cat slammed into the feline while still in the air and the two began to fight.

The massive wolfs jaws snapped closed on the cats neck eliciting a pained yowl form the feline that immediately retaliated by using the claws on its back legs the slash open the gut of the wolf. While this was going on Ranma made a break for it only to have the two beings slide across the ground right in front of him and the cats eyes focus on him as the felines body skidded towards the boy. The cat's jaws gaped wide to try and snatch the boy only to have the wolf slam a paw down on the side of its head and tear a chunk out of its chest bringing out another yowl of pain. Ranma's frantic backing up was stopped when even the wolf turned its eyes upon him and then leapt for the boy.

With a cry of fear Ranma jerked awake only to find an ancient wrinkled face mere inches from her own, which elicited a cry of surprise and a jerk back that slammed her head into the building behind her with an audible crack. Moaning in pain the grey haired demoness rubbed at the back of her head muttering curses and thinking of ways to pound Genma for dragging her off to this part of the world. It took only a moment for her to realize that the ancient amazon wasn't moving and only seconds longer to see the ancient woman was impaled by her own staff. Around the old woman scattered here and there were the bodies of at least fifteen amazons and the remains of several buildings nearby, along with the scuffed dirt and blood splashed wood told Ranma that someone had fought a running retreat from the area. Unable to view the bloody bodies any longer the young fighter rushed to the nearest shadow and threw up several times while trying to get the image of the impaled elder out of her mind. The shadows were what saved her as loud thumping announced the arrival of several demons moving through the area towards the woods.

Fading into the shadows she watched the creatures tromp past and looked away in horror as one tore the arm off of one of the corpses and started eating it as it passed. Waiting until the demons were passed to empty what was left of her stomach Ranma realized that she was now behind enemy lines, as one soldier in America she had talked to had explained, This meant that she had to be extra careful and use every once of stealth she had to get out of the area alive. The small town had been wrecked badly, groups of houses had been flattened completely by the black flames of the red armored demon and by the attacks of the lesser demons themselves. There was a steady snow like drifting of ash falling and the sky above the small town was now dominated by a twisting swirl of ash that seemed to be lofted skyward by winds rushing out of the hole in the ground. Flitting from shadow to shadow and hiding when necessary to escape view the martial artist moved towards the edge of the village until she hit an area that had been flattened enough to open it up all the way to the center of the town.

A massive obsidian block of stone now dominated the space where the challenge log had been and the ground around it had turned a sickly yellow hue that seemed to be spreading outwards slowly. Even as Ranma watched the hue moved slowly forward until it reached a trench scratched into the ground by one of the demons. Once at the trench the sickly looking color stopped its advance and seemed to wait for several seconds before the ground shattered upwards and obsidian blocks ripped themselves from the ground and began to build a tower. Black stone slammed into black stone with loud booms echoing across the town as the tower constructed itself higher and higher until it reached a high peak nearing the swirling ash in the sky. Ranma had no idea what the tower was or even how it had been erected but what she did know was that it couldn't be good that the demons that remained nearby were cheering and handing out food. It took a second for Ranma to realize what the food was and ended up dry heaving into the shadows near a building.

She had just started to jump forward towards the buildings on the other side of the destroyed area while the demons were busy when hands grabbed her and jerked her into the building she had been leaning against. Twisting around she grabbed the wrist of the stranger and twisted their arm before kicking the person left knee dropping them to the ground before realizing that she was attacking an amazon. Letting go of the girl's wrist she looked around inside the house to see twelve amazons and two elders all watching her.

"At least you can react fast to attack, your sensing of others could use some work though." One elder said as she watched Ranma "Quickly child, we have work to do and your fighting abilities will be much appreciated here." Before Ranma's startled eyes the elder tapped the floor with her staff and it opened to reveal a dark passage below "We must make haste away from here but we also cannot allow these beasts to acquire amazon magic."

The seven men and five women plus the two elders jumped into the hole with Ranma moving form the wall to follow; she looked once more out into the cleared area where the demons had now begun to stack the corpses off to the side of the tower most likely to save them for later. Just as she started to turn form the view something large burst from the hole unfurling large wings the beast rose skyward with a shrieking wail and swept around the area before perching on the top of the tower. Almost twenty of the beasts had left the hole before Ranma felt the presence of one of the elders beside her. Both warriors watched the beasts with interest; the flying animals looked like some form of gargoyle but were covered in spotty grey fur with patches of dead rotting skin showing where all the fur had fallen out. Their wings were feathered but looked to have lost nearly half of their feathers and had holes in the flesh but no blood leaving them. The thickly muscled bodies seemed to not match the head of the being at all as it was nothing but a skull, and what looked to be a large dog skull at that.

"Verka scum." The hissed rage in the old woman's voice would have been obvious to even the most obtuse of people. "No time to waste here, we must move before they send the Verka to smell out any survivors."

Following the elder through the hole Ranma slid down a ladder and found herself in an ancient tunnel with walls done in bricks colored a dark bronze. The walls were covered in what looked to be a strange writing from floor to ceiling that stretched ahead into the darkness. Ranma walked along beside the elders glancing at the walls every now and then with a vague feeling that she had seen the writing somewhere in the past but spending most of her time thinking of Ryoga and how she wasn't going to get to spar with him anymore.

"Stupid Ryoga, I could have taken care of myself." The grey haired teen wiped at her eyes while mentally trying to force herself to think that she wasn't crying.

"Ryoga…Would that be the werecreature." The elder waited for the girls nod and let out a snort afterwards "There is no reason to worry about him; he is likely on his feet again already. Werecreature's are notoriously hard to kill and a simple crushing of his skull won't slow him down for long." The elder watched the girl's expression turn from sadness to worry then to anger and shook her head at the ignorance of the youth, how anyone could not know of a werewolf's ability to survive under severe conditions was strange as even the movies of the west showed at least some of their impressive abilities.

The trip through the hall wasn't as dreary as it had started for Ranma as she thought of how badly she was going to pummel Ryoga for interfering in her fight and making her think he was dead. Not that thing's went smoothly as she was worried about the amazon's that had left the village and if they had made it away alright and if Genma had made it away with them. The rest of the trip was short though and the warriors soon found themselves standing in front of two large doors that were nearly twelve feet tall and covered in lightly glowing runes. The smaller of the elders raised her staff and the tip began to match the glow of the runes followed by the doors opening soundlessly inwards revealing a massive room filled with boxes, crates and various objects lying here and there.

The elders immediately jumped into action heading to the center of the room and beginning fiddle with a sphere the size of a basketball that rested in a small indent in the floor. The warriors spread out hunting through the objects and plucking out weapons to use when they found one they liked. Moving from crate to crate Ranma scanned the walls and noticed the same writing on them as was on the walls in the hallway, the room contained three other doors besides the one they entered in as well, a look around showed large white crystal pillars that were covered in glowing red runes as well and had depictions of strange demonic looking forces engraved here and there on them. The elders continued their hurried work while the amazons snagged enchanted armor and weapons and Ranma continued crisscrossing the room back and forth until she nearly tripped over something sticking out of a small pile of crates. The young fighter had just knelt to look at what looked to be a staff, one of the few weapons Genma had trained her extensively in when one of the four entrances let out a thunderous boom and cracks spread across the door.

With a curse the elders started working faster and the warriors scrambled to find hiding places as the booms against the doors increased. Dropping behind the crate Ranma sat still and watched as the warriors readied themselves in their hiding places and the elders finally darted from the orb and rushed to hiding places themselves. With a last booming crash the doors shattered, several pieces vented inwards so hard they even passed Ranma's hiding place. The loud clumping of hooves on stone echoed through the room but Ranma's sharp ears also picked up the clank of rattling armor over the other noises, as well as a strange sound almost like wind blowing through a tunnel that seemed to increase and decrease in strength. With a loud clunk and armored hoof slammed down next to the crate she hid behind and the demon, the same red armored variety from earlier, stood next to her hiding place with its back to her. Reaching over her fingers closed gently around the haft of the staff and began to pull it free of the crates it was between managing to do it soundlessly.

From her angle Ranma could see the amazon who had grabbed a bow draw the string back and an arrow of flame snapped into existence upon the bow and she readied to attack. Trying to get the girls attention by gesturing and shaking her head to try and make it clear not to attack Ranma found herself ignored and the girl leapt up firing the arrow smoothly. The nearest demon to the girl dropped as its head was charred black and now sported a large hole through it; the attack was ill-timed though as the girl found herself under attack by two more demons nearby. The red armored demon spun and started to move, and promptly tripped slamming into the ground with a crash as Ranma jumped up pulling the staff free of the beings legs. Jumping back swiftly she saw a few strands of her hair break free and realized if she had stood still for a second longer she wouldn't have a head left. A quick look told her the young amazon had been rescued by two men and the fighting was now starting up everywhere and Ranma was starting realize just how badly things could go here.

A desperate block with the staff she had pulled from the crates stopped the demons claws and she retaliated with a kick to the demon's gut that seemed to do nothing more than shove it back a foot or so. After that it became a blinding dance of defense and minor attacks as Ranma tried to find some way to pass the demons seeming invincibility. Breath exploded from her lungs as a large fist impacted her stomach and threw her backwards into a crate, or more specifically into the object hanging out of the crate. With a tortured scream the grey haired girl struggled to break contact with the object and finally fell to the ground trailing white smoke from her injured form. The demon tromped forward but seemed to be highly wary of getting near the object; finally seeming to gain the courage to move it reached for Ranma. The girl weakly rolled to her back and slammed the staff into the object on the crate hooking it on the staff's tip before slinging it into the demons face. The demons roar echoed through the room and into the hallways the two forces had entered from.

Rough hands grabbed her pulling her up and the martial artist surveyed the battlefield noting that the amazons were down to only a few opponents left and taking those down fast. She nodded thanks to the man who had helped her up and looked to the red armored demon, somewhere deep inside she felt a spark of joy at seeing the charred corpse now in blackened armor lying on the floor. Shivering slightly at the weird feeling Ranma was about to ask the warrior next to her where the elders were and what they were going to do when the man was blasted backwards by a bolt of lightning that passed close enough to cause the hairs on her arm to stand up. A quick look around showed nothing but seconds later a female fighter was blasted by a large fireball leaving nothing but a charred corpse behind, the attacker might not have been known before but the fireball's origin was easily tracked.

Looking near the ceiling the defenders found themselves staring at a strange manlike being in blue robes. As it descended into the light they had their first look at the new enemy and again Ranma felt a feeling deep inside though this one was a strange dark rage directed at the strange demon. It stood nearly six feet tall and appeared to be made of shadows in the shape of a human, within the shadow body were strange silver spark like objects floating around with two of them in place of the beings eyes. The new demon wore blue robes with gold scrolling along the cuffs and hem and seemed to wear a crown made of darker shadow than its body. Even as the amazons were staring in surprise the demons hands were moving and a strange language poured forth before it swept a hand forwards and released a barrage of lightning bolts at three women to its forward right. The incoming bolts of death would have impacted if an elder hadn't tossed a crystal in front of the attack and let it absorb the assault.

"THIS WAY!" The shout from Ranma's back caused her to turn to see an elder gesturing for the fighters to head for one of the doors that had been sealed before but was now opened. The fighters bolted for the new opening while the demon cast more spells to try and stop them only to have them intercepted by more crystals. As she approached the doors Ranma started to feel a strange pull backwards and looked back to see crates, boxes, and free artifacts being sucked into the sphere that now hovered several feet off of the ground. Dashing out through the doors the party rushed down the hallway to another ladder and a way out as the suction from behind increased forcing them to struggle up the ladder and watch as dust was pulled into the hole before the elder tapped the ground and sealed the hatch.

"What about the sphere? Even if ya got the stuff collected they still have the sphere." Ranma watched the elders examine the area before moving towards the trees nearby.

"Don't worry about the sphere, we must move swiftly to reach Phoenix Mountain." The warriors rushed into the trees with Ranma close behind.

In the storeroom the creature in robes released its shield as the last of the artifacts was pulled into the sphere and it settled to the floor allowing the being to move forwards and try to grab it only to have it's hand slip through its substance before fading out completely. The creature's magical nature told it the sphere had just teleported itself away from the room and likely away from anywhere the army could reach it easily.

Trees rushed passed as Ranma followed the amazons along a long forgotten trail, long forgotten to most people anyway, until they reached one of the more heavily used trails and came across the bodies of nearly thirty amazons that had obviously tried to slow the demons behind them from reaching the retreating others. The amazons stopped and spent a short time praying for the fallen and an elder tossed a small red crystal onto the pile of bodies and watched as they burst into flame. All of them noticed the large number of enemy bodies lying scattered around and realized that the amazon party had made the demons pay severely for trying to get passed them. Looking on Ranma saw a body to the side that wasn't a demon and, pushing the brush aside, found the body of a girl who couldn't have been older than Ranma herself. A part of Ranma said girls shouldn't be fighting, knowledge shoved into her head by Genma over the years though it wasn't something Ranma had truly taken seriously as Genma had gotten beat up by women as Ranma watched quite often. But there was something that was still there, a girl that age shouldn't have had to die because some damn demon wanted a meal.

The amazons had turned immediately when they felt the great power and several had grabbed weapons incase of attack but found nothing but the cursed foreign kid, except that weird black lightning's would start to spark into existence then fade out then start again before fading out. "Bastards! I'll make you pay; I'll make you suffer for this!" Even the elders felt fear at the strange dual nature of the girls voice.

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Descriptions. 

Mirrored form demons: These are the bog standard demon forces that make up the majority of the enemy forces. Mirrored form demons are somewhat easy, and somewhat tricky to make. Even a lesser demon can end up with a massive army of demons if it knows what its doing and has access to the right tools. The main tool is a referred to as a Mirror Of Duplication, while not impressively named the mirror was never meant to sound impressive as hero's and other good types would likely flock to strike at something named the Mirror Of Hell or the Mirror Of World's End. Once a mirror is in a demons possession, or anyone's for that matter, the being then needs a demon as the mirror is built to work only on demons, simply stand a demon in front of the mirror and then have it step aside, the mirror will put out a demon every thirty minutes or so depending on demon strength. The main problems with this is the type of demons used, a demon too weak and the mirrored form is so weak that it cannot even fight normal humans and hope to hurt them. A demon to powerful and the mirror is completely unable to duplicate them. The mirror will do its best to duplicate the demon but the demon that is the duplicate will always be weaker than the original demon, though this is known to vary as the red armored demons are the same demons as the smaller weaker forms it is merely that they were duplicated better than the others.

Field Commander: Red armored demon. They are more than twice as powerful as their weaker brethren and as such are granted full suits of demon plate armor that enhances them even more. Their actions, such as dispatching runners from their own forces to head back to camp would suggest that there are demons even higher ranked and more powerful then them. They are each placed in control of five hundred of their lesser brethren and will not even hesitate a second to sacrifice all their forces if it means the elimination of even a single high powered threat.

Verka: While no one is completely sure of their actual origin the Myth is bad enough. They were once a race that inhabited another dimension living upon a strange world of islands in an endless sky. The gargoyles had lived in such for what to them seemed an eternity until the dimensional walls to their home universe were breached by a race employing high technology of unknown origin. The gargoyles used their magic to seal the breach and thus believed that they were safe and were for several hundred years until their home was entered again, this time by four injured human men from universe unknown. The gargoyles were interested in these flightless beings and nursed them back to health hoping to find out where they were from. The four men were necromancers from another realm and once they had been renewed to life they cast dark magic's over the realms of the gargoyles. Within a single night an entire city of gargoyle's numbering in the hundreds of thousands was destroyed, their dead corpses littering the streets were raised by the necromancers into an unholy undead army and marched back through the breach into the magic user's home dimension.

From this point on even Myth is scarce, it is told that a great war raged across a blasted wasteland of dark sand and oceans of mist before the necromancers were defeated. Though they fell in the end their creations fled through the veil between realities and became lost for thousands of years. Time and again they have popped up in places least suspected and caused havoc before being sealed away, the last time they showed themselves was while in the employ of a powerful demon referred to only as The Demon King. A point of interest is that the rumor of their existence and abilities came directly from the Musk dynasty itself.

Shadow King: A creature of pure shadow, Myth states that the magical shadows that wear the shadow crowns upon their heads are the remnants of kings of ancient times whose kingdoms fell under an ancient mist of power that spread from an orb created by a demon god and placed in the care of a thoughtless human. The mist spread across the land and caused horrors great enough to have been stricken from history until the kings of the four closest kingdoms gathered together to stop the mist. The kings, magic users all, created a powerful counter enchantment that sealed the orb away in a pocket dimension, unfortunately for the kings the mist already released from the orb sought out the beings who had the power to strike down the orb that had created it. Ambushed while weakened the kings were unable to stop the mist from soaking into them completely and the four shadow kings were born.

The shadow kings are parodies of their once living selves, where once they loved their people and the joys of life they now despise the living mortals of the world and desire nothing more than to destroy all that stands in the way of the demonic forces. Their powerful magic's were stunted by the mist into a power capable of throwing only weaker magic's forcing them to use chain lighting or fireball spells where once they could have created quakes that could shatter mountains. They are still a force to be respected and they command a sense of deep respect from the demon legions for their unwavering loyalty towards the one they consider master. It is believed that they are of equal rank with the Field commanders, or possibly only a rank above them.

Amazon storehouse: Origin unknown, even to the amazons. They built their town above it because it was a perfect place to put their magical trinkets and artifacts.

Authors note: About Ranma near the end thinking that he didn't really believe Genma's 'don't fight girls, and girls are weak' stuff. If you read the manga you'll notice that while Ranma doesn't fight Akane he will fight other girls. He seems to have this thing about fighting girls that wouldn't have a chance at fighting back. I'm essentially putting in that Genma got beaten up by plenty of women on the training trip, cant you just see Genma getting pummeled by women, plus the fight in the amazon village against the demons. And Ranma is also being influenced slightly by the remnants of the demons mind. Considering she was female there is no way even the remnant that is left is going to allow Ranma to have a weakness that can be exploited by a girl attacking him and him holding back simply cause she's a girl.


	4. Chapter 4

Well here is chapter 4. For some reason it reads strange to me but I cant think of why right now, possibly cause in thinking of eq2 to much right now so I cant put my whole mind to it but oh well. Well I hope ya like it, as always read and review, tell me if I need to improve for the next chapters and such. These first chapters were a little harder than I thought they'd be but they are also somewhat fun and now on with the story!

As always I own nothing of Ranma 1/2

"speaking"

_'thoughts'_

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CHAPTER 4

Thick drops of rain splattered the trees and ground as a dark figure flitted through the trees running full out and hoping that the figures crashing through the trees behind wouldn't catch up very quickly. A wet back slammed against a tree as the girl let out a pained groan clutching at her injured side and wishing, not for the first time, that she had never ended up here. A second later her sense's screaming she dropped to the ground as a massive obsidian bladed sword slashed through the trunk of the tree sending it crashing to the side and giving her the best chance to eliminate at least one follower she had had all night. Spinning upright and planting one hand on the smooth wood of the stump she leapt over it hammering a kick into the demons gut that slammed it back into a tree while consequently crushing its ribs and sending bone shard through its organs, it died without even letting out a shout.

A soaked grey braid swayed as the cursed boy rushed through the trees trying to outdistance any pursuit that might reach the area of the dead demon while she thought of how easily she had dispensed death to the creature. Never in her life had she thought killing could be so easy or so regretless, even though her and pops had attacked and killed several small demons before it had never been like this. Ever since leaving home by means of Genma to be raised as the best martial artist in the world her arrogance and ego had grown along with her skill. How could anyone who could kick the crap out of ten adults when only eight years old not think they were nearly the best. That arrogance had grown considerably by the time they had reached china; though it was tempered with a healthy dose of anger at her father for everything he had put her through over the years. The neko-ken alone was the most horrifying experience even Ranma could think of and even with the strange feelings accompanying the curse and its changes Ranma still couldn't think of the little furball's without shuddering in fear.

Over the years Ranma had seen much in the world moving from one continent to another though sometimes heading back to Japan for a short time. It was actually surprising that she had made it to school at all and when thinking of it she had to admit that she likely hadn't been in school for more than a total of a few months altogether. It was in those months that she had met Ryoga and managed to befriend the boy, he was actually the only second friend she had, right next to Ukyo. Training there and elsewhere from Sweden to the USA on a military base with the marines had pushed that ego and arrogance even higher until she had finally reached china. It was truthful that if the demons hadn't arrived she would likely have had the intact arrogance to believe she could have even challenged people like the amazon elders and won. It was amazing what a few hours of seeing people be butchered by demons and having your ass kicked on several occasions and being hunted like an animal through the forest could do to your sense of superiority.

Honostly she thought her ego had been the first to go after less than an hour with all the fighting she had seen. A single elder alone could likely hand her her ass without even trying and there had been several amazons that Ranma had seen in the fights that had definitely matched her for fighting ability. The crushing of her certain belief in the power of her abilities came form the demons themselves; Ranma had always assumed that skill would make up for anything but the red armored demons had no real skill to speak of but simply relied on massively superior speed to outdo everything she threw at them, add in the gigantic difference in strength in favor of the demon and she just couldn't win. It was the sight of all of those demons, of the leaders of the demon forces that so easily outclassed her that had hit her the hardest. Sure she could still feel certain of defeating the lesser demons but the larger variety was too damn powerful for a direct approach, it required a level of adaptability that she was glad Genma had managed to beat into her over the years and it was time she started to use it.

After all had been said and done though she was still a teenager and the sight of so many dead bodies was more than simply creepy, it had brought out a rage that still hadn't been satisfied by the deaths of a few demons. She had sworn they would pay and she would make sure that every last one of the bastards regretted entering this world. That rage at the demons was what was still propelling her forward even though she wasn't sure exactly where to go once she had been separated from the others during the ambush that had hit the group less than an hour after leaving the amazon bodies behind. It had taken until she was separated from the others until she realized that they had been herded into forest alone and by then she found herself being hunted by nearly thirty lesser demons with two of the strange flying creatures sweeping above the trees keeping track of her. The only plusses that had happened lately were the fall of night and the rain to dilute her tracks, even so she had a feeling that things were only getting worse.

The worst so far seemed to be that the demons were starting to arm themselves with swords, axes and maces all made of a dark obsidian stone and lashed to thick grips of rough hewn wood. For all their crude looks the demons weapons bore an unearthly sharpness and power that allowed them to cleave through solid stone without slowing down at all. Rain poured down through the trees and soaked Ranma to the bone even as she hid deeper within the branches of a tree as a large column of demons tromped by underneath headed towards the dim outline of a mountain in the distance. Shifting slightly on the branch she was on the demoness clenched her teeth around a hiss of pain and clapped her hand to her side once again, though this time she felt the warm wetness of blood beginning to flow again. She had been pummeled, slammed through a building, and nearly fried by a holy power from an amulet that was still sending tingles down her spine and none of it had slowed her down for long. But a simple gash made by one of those obsidian blades had remained open instead of healing swiftly and was sending spikes of pain throughout her side whenever she twisted to the left.

The dull roar of rain slamming into leaves and rocks and ground nearly covered the fading thumping of hooves upon rock as the last of the demons tramped by the tree on their path to who knew where. Wincing as she jerked the makeshift bandage tighter then pushed away from the tree trunk and with a powerful leap landing in the next tree over repeating it again and again as she followed the last of the demon train deeper into the woods and towards their destination. For the first time in nearly two years Ranma got to use her skills in hiding and tracking that she had learned while hunting animals in Siberia and other harsh climes. The demons below didn't even know they were being tracked as she leapt from tree to tree hoping that the demons weren't going a long way, what with the shooting pain from her side every now an then. She needn't have worried as after an hour of moving they had approached a red glow that brightened as they approached what Ranma was assuming was a clearing of some kind.

The martial artist, moments after landing in the last tree, finally understood why the demons had been in such a hurry to get to this place. The camp was huge, filling a space hundreds of feet across and it hadn't always been that wide, obviously shown by the black scorch marks where trees had once stood. The demons were packed into the clearing, some looked to be sharpening weapons, others were training, and some were simply sitting and talking in the same strange language she had heard before. The center of the camp was dominated by a huge bonfire that was surrounded by not one or two but three of the red armored demons that Ranma had such trouble fighting. Not far from the fire, and completely surrounded by demons, was an object that caught all of Ranma's attention though. A cage filled with six of the amazons that she had escaped the town with and who had also been separated like Ranma had, though unlike Ranma they had been caught. The sight of the bones near the fire was testament that there had been more than six to begin with. Again she felt that rage burning deep begin to well up inside her but the sight of several hundred demons gathered within the camp was enough to damp even her still nearly boundless optimism.

There wasn't even the chance of using the rain in some way to her benefit as the camp was completely dry due to a large multihued shield that shimmered above the camp shunting the rain into the trees several rows back from Ranma's position. It was interesting to her that she hadn't even noticed the shield until she had been underneath it and even then it had seemed to slid out of her view until she had deliberately looked up to see what had happened to the rain. The demons seemed interested in the single elder that was within the cage as well but that interest wasn't much use as it was obvious that the elder was in fairly bad shape and currently unconscious. Slipping back within the shadows of the branches the cursed boy began to think of possible ways to try and rescue the others without getting killed or captured.

It was nearly two hours later when Ranma leaned forwards focusing upon a strange staff and crystal set extremely close to the fire within the camp, the reason it was so interesting was that it was glowing with the same multihued light as the hard to focus on shield. Her mind started working overtime as she tried to come up with a plan quickly that didn't involve her running away. She was a martial artist, it was her duty to protect those who couldn't protect themselves and the amazons within the cage definitely counted as such but she just couldn't think of anything that could be done without the end result being hers and their deaths. But she also couldn't leave without feeling guilt for the rest of her life over not helping when she should have, the problem as before though was what help to give.

Claws tore into wood as she clenched her fingers then turned and leapt several trees back from where she had been though she kept a watch towards the fire and the demons. Brushing strands of grey hair out of golden eyes she slid her fingers along the cracks in a large boulder resting near a large tree and turned slightly to sight back towards the fire. With a loud cracking drowned out by the roar of rain hitting the shield overhead she sank clawed fingers into the rock and tore the nearly fifteen ton boulder from its place in the forest floor and then turned to look back in the direction of the camp. The curse was definitely good for some things, for one it gave her a near photographic memory that allowed her from even this position to toss the rock with expert accuracy. To the demons sitting at the fire there was no warning at all that something was happening until a massive rock slammed down onto their shield staff and the shield overhead flickered out followed by torrential rain rushing down and dimming their fire.

Suddenly finding herself soaked to the bone again was enough to tell her that her plan had worked, and the bright glow of the fire ahead was suddenly very dim as the rain crashed down onto it. Branches bent as weight settled on them and claws dug into wood to hold her in place as Ranma watched the dim outline of the demons crashing around their camp roaring in anger and spreading out to look for the possible approaching enemies. She just hoped that they would stay in the woods looking long enough for her to get what she wanted done; a second later she leapt towards the cage.

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Lotion had slowly began to recover from the beating she had gotten earlier from the demon commanders for killing one of their number. But it was obvious that even at full health she and the amazons with her wouldn't be able to break out with all of the demons flooding the area around them. The elder may have been involved in many battles against the Musk and Phoenix tribes but she had never had to watch members of her tribe be eaten before her, some while still alive. The elder's fingers clenched around her staff as she stared out in the dark blackness that had resulted from a boulder crushing the shield staff the demons had been using. She had been paying such attention to the demons nearby that she almost didn't hear the soft thump from the ceiling of the cage and wondered if another group of warriors had arrived to try and rescue them. She dropped the thought of amazon warriors immediately when clawed fingers tore through the metal of the top of the cage and peeled it back showing a figure silhouetted against the sky when lighting flashed. A second later she realized who it was and had to shake her head in amazement, of course only a child insane enough to take on a commander in a straight forward fight would be insane enough to try and break into a demon encampment.

* * *

Ranma had just started to reach down into the cage to help the first amazons out when the metal of the top of the cage cratered behind her and huge fingers clamped closed around her waist lifting her from the top of the cage and then the demon was airborne. The young fighter had only a seconds notice before she was slammed into the ground near the fire. A desperate kick sent the demon slipping backwards in the mud and it fell with a thud spraying mud everywhere letting out a thunderous roar that sounded loudly over the rain and thunder. 

With a pained wince Ranma pushed herself up and focused on the demon that was already on its hooves with its two brothers moving up to flank it. Even then she could feel them surrounding her where she stood and knew that with the speed the red armored ones could employ she wouldn't make it to the trees even if she tried to jump. One of the demons swept its sword free letting the black flames turn red and flare brightly to illuminate the area and their opponent. The grey haired demoness was covered in mud and ash from the fire, little of her hair was showing grey right now due to the ash and mud that coated it and her clothes were just as dirty now though her side was leaking red again. Ranma clenched her fists glaring around her at all the demons that stood readying weapons and moved her prospects of simply escaping from minimum to nonexistent. Brushing mud caked bangs away from her eyes she heard one of the large demons laughing soon joined by their lesser brethren as the rain cut off.

It was obvious that she had failed, somehow the demon had moved so silently that she hadn't even heard it as it impacted the cage behind her and thus had spoiled her rescue of the amazons. The teenager heard light splashes next to her as the amazons landed near her forming a circle with the elder within the center glowering at the three demon commanders. '_Not gonna die!'_ The Thought flickered through her head and a shifting foot landed on something now almost covered in muddy water but was still recognizable as a human skull. Claws dug painfully into the palms of her hands as the rain near her feet began to steam as her anger rushed in full force and everything dissolved into a simple three targets among the mass of demons. Letting out an enraged cry Ranma leapt towards the demons only to have lesser forms jump in her way to fight her instead of the ones she desperately wanted to take out. The sounds of the amazons battle cries echoed behind her and at least a small portion of Ranma's mind latched onto the fact that there was no way she was walking out of this one.

Ranma's anger had been so great that she hadn't thought about why the rain would have stopped so suddenly or why she could still hear the rain in the distance from every side but it wasn't falling where they were and the demons shield staff was still broken. Just before the young fighter could reach the first demons the night was torn by a battle cry emanating form the sky and the night exploded with movement as figures dropped from the darkness onto the demons. Ranma managed to catch a brief sight of flaring white wings and a golden spear wielded by a woman with white hair and bearing strange clothes as she slammed into a commander and skewered it with her spear before the night dissolved into bloody chaos.

* * *

Descriptions.

Dark Step: Technique used by the demon commander that allows it to move from darkness to darkness, is particularly useful at night since everything is dark allowing it to insta-port from place to place in seconds. The downside is that it requires fairly impressive concentration which means it has extreme trouble doing it during battle as it is spending to much thought on fighting to utilize the technique. This is the skill used by the commander to get on top of the cage without having to jump and alert Ranma to his presence by landing and making enough noise for him to dodge the demons grab.


	5. Chapter 5

Well, well, well, looks like I finally got off my lazy butt and finished chapter 5. Hope this thing is good enough and that you people like it. Hopefully the next chapter comes out easier as I got stuck and then procrastinated and procrastinated and spent too much time playing games. But I have finally brought this thing out so enjoy! Hopefully not to many mistakes in this thing.

As usual I own nothing of Ranma 1/2, likely cause I aint good enough to make something like it.

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**CHAPTER 5**

Grey braid whipping around she ducked under a swipe by a large sword and swept the demons feet out from under it before catching the sword as it fell from the demons hand and slashing it around slamming the flat of the blade into the beast throwing it into a tree. Reversing the blade she blocked the strike from another demon while bracing herself against the logs near the fire. It took only flash of memory of what happened to the people in the village for Ranma to shove the demons blade to the side then slash her own back and cleave the creature's head off. Pain exploded in her side as a large mace slammed into her sending her flying into the back of another demon sending even more pain ripping through her as the spikes that covered the back of the other demon tore into her back.

Vision blurred slowly fading into focus and she found herself staring at mud churned up by the movement of hooves and feet, her eyes focused on the red that was mixed into it and she realized it was blood. Fingers clenched in the mud and she struggled to push herself up all the while trying to pinpoint any fighting close enough to endanger her. Her arms nearly gave out twice as she heaved herself to all fours then pushed herself to her feet swaying and stumbling and struggling to stay upright. As it was Ranma had learned early after her dunk in the spring that her cursed form was tougher and more durable than she was in her birth form, at the moment she was nearly certain that she'd be dead if she was a guy right now. Stumbling forward she nearly collapsed and only stayed upright do to a spear sticking up from the mud ahead of her, as she leaned on the weapon she looked around at the raging fight around her.

The winged warriors that had attacked seemed to be doing well for themselves and of the three armored demons two corpses were laying nearby though the third was completely out of view. It took a moment to realize that some of the amazons attacking weren't the ones from the cage and she realized that others had come with the winged ones to help in the assault. An amazons body tumbled past to crash into a tree and crumple to the ground, one of the winged fighters bodies was nearby while his wings lay several feet away having been hacked off by the demons before his death. Pained eyes scanned the battlefield and saw two of the amazons she had escaped the town with speared by chunks of wood from the bonfire and the elder she had been going to rescue with the others near a piece of wood trying to bandage a deep wound in another girl who couldn't have been over fourteen years old.

A shriek from the left made the girl turn weakly and see the same white haired winged woman from earlier striking at the last of the armored demons, Ranma was surprised that the woman was still alive and fighting but she also noticed that the winged woman was keeping her distance after each effort to impale the demon. The fight continued and Ranma felt her strength start to come back though as before the wounds caused by the demons were taking much longer to heal than a normal wound would. She tore the spear free of the mud and started towards the fighting only to have another demon stumble into view recovering from a strike of a broadsword to its left arm. Not hesitating for an instant Ranma thrust the spear towards the demons head only to have the beast knock it aside with its mace and retaliate with a swift swipe only to have it hit empty air as Ranma stumbled back then stabbed weakly at the demons chest.

The spear tip dug into leathery flesh causing the demon to roar in anger and slam the spear free of Ranma's hands before tearing it free from its chest and stepping forward slamming a punch into the gut of the demoness dropping her to the ground. The mace swept up and began its downward swing only to have thick furred fingers catch the haft and stop it dead. Ranma blinked blearily upwards at the furred figure that blended in with the night around it and heard a deep voice "Like I told that other bastard. If anyone's going to kill Saotome it's going to be me!" Ryoga slammed a blow into the side of the demons head hard enough to shatter its horns and crack its skull, the demon staggered back several feet before collapsing to the ground and ceasing to move.

"Ryo..ga… Nice ta see ya." Ranma struggled to push herself up but her arms gave out and she collapsed back into the mud "Sorry, can't fight ya right now, got more demons to beat up." Vision blurred and blackness closed in dropping her into unconsciousness.

Ryoga shook his head "Can't believe your still alive Saotome, the old lady thought you were dead." Ryoga turned in time to intercept another demon, gripped its wrist and tossed it to the left and into the red armored demon still fighting the phoenix guard captain. The commander staggered as the other demon impacted it and it gave the woman the opening she needed.

"Ten Thousand Bird wing Slice!"

Wings swept through the air rapidly and a rain of ki blades flashed downwards tearing through armor and flesh and turning the demons into a shredded pile of metal, flesh and bone. With the last commander fallen the demons scattered fleeing into the forest back towards the village and away from the attackers. "Do not follow them! Gather our wounded and retreat to the mountain!" The woman flew upwards and swiftly left for the mountain while the others gathered up the injured as swiftly and gently as they could.

**SEVERAL HOURS LATER**

With a cry Ranma jerked awake lashing out at whatever was holding onto her only to have said thing drop her to the ground on her ass. "Don't expect me to carry you if your going to be like that." Ryoga's voice sounded too loud to Ranma who winced and rubbed at her throbbing head.

Ranma looked around noticing the line of warriors plodding their way towards a mountain reaching up above the trees some distance away. With a pained wince she stood up noticing the bandages that were wrapped around her tightly. "Ryoga…" frowning she glared at the boy for a second before spinning away and limping along next to the others "You die again and I swear I'll hunt you down in the afterlife and pound you." Ranma tossed the words over her shoulder while walking away and rubbing at her eyes.

"Are you…crying?" The question came from next to her as Ryoga caught up.

"NO!" Ranma managed a limping run and outdistanced Ryoga while slipping into the trees to put some distance between herself and the others while she walked. "What the hell's the matter with me! I'm not crying because that idiots still alive!" Ranma knew she was lying. Ryoga had been her second friend, the only other friend she had had besides Ukyo and the thought of him being dead had definitely impacted her fighting afterwards. When the elder had said that Ryoga was alive, as a werewolf could recover from even his injuries in the village in a small amount of time Ranma had been overjoyed that her friend was possibly still alive and kicking. With the truth now right infront of her she was having trouble acting like everything was normal.

But that wasn't the only problem, once again while she walked Ranma found herself looking at her hands to check for blood and shivered as she thought of the nightmare that had woken her. 'A martial artist doesn't kill.' It was a simple statement that Genma had pummeled into her skull over years of fighting and she had tossed it aside when the demons attacked. It was true that they were demons and Genma had taken her to hunt a couple demons once when she was younger, but even then she hadn't been the one to take them out that had been Genma. And what was worse was the strange feelings she had gotten in the middle of the fighting and she was starting to wonder what was possibly wrong with her.

Killing the demons had been hard at first but there had been one thing that Genma had pounded into her skull even more and that was that it was a martial artist's duty to protect the weak even if it cost the fighter their life. She wasn't sure where the knowledge came from but she was certain that these demons weren't like people; they didn't have the ability to feel love or give out kindness like a human could. To her senses they felt strange whenever she focused on them at close range, like they were not all there or something.

As Ranma walked she looked to the morning sun and wondered how long she had been out and needing Ryoga to carry her from the battle. Brushing grey bangs from her eyes and flicking chunks of dried mud from her hair she examined the trees around her while keeping a watch on the amazons a short distance away through the trees. Her mind slipped back to the weird dream she had had focusing on the strange things about death and her killing of the demons, it hadn't been pretty and she was now certain that she had something wrong with her but was unable to understand what it was.

"Walking alone isn't the best idea at this time you know." The elder frowned at the look in the young fighter's eyes as she turned to the elder. "Ah…Death, was this the first time you actually killed something that could fight back as those creatures could?" The elder watched the young girl nod and frowned slightly "In this case it must be done, I understand your indecision about the deaths of the demons and your questioning of yourself about whether your doing the right thing."

"It's not that, I can…sense them, I think is what I do, and I can tell that they have no feelings like you and I. In fact I don't think they are…complete, I think would be the way to describe them." The young martial artist frowned as she looked to the elder pogoing along beside her and then turned to examine the approaching mountain. "Pops and me hunted a couple demons before but he was always the one to kill them, it's that I keep feeling some strange feelings when I start to fight and I'm worried that those feelings are going to grow if I keep fighting the demons."

Lotion watched the girl carefully and noticed at first two and then with more intense examining she noticed the girl was showing three nearly distinct auras where a normal person, even a normal Jusenkyo cursed person, would only show one. The elder watched the young fighter closely and frowned as the cursed boy's walk changed from moment to moment. Sometimes the girl would be moving with the same soundless predatory grace that she had shown in the fighting in the village and then seconds later she would move with the arrogant confident strides of a person afraid of nothing and knowing its place was far above others. Lastly the demoness would suddenly seem to walk as a normal human martial artist of great skill but not showing the deadly movement of the other two walks, each aura seemed to slip into being the dominant one for a certain walk.

Tree's thinned and Ranma limped into the open and stared upwards at a massive pillar of rock that extended up into the lower clouds. The surface of the mountain was dotted with houses and towers that stuck out into the air at odd angles. The view of the buildings was less important than the sky full of winged figures flying to and fro between the buildings and training in the air while some kept a watch out into the forest. "The Phoenix tribe, they are the strongest faction within the valley due to their leader." The elder frowned at the girl as she started to sway "Come child, its best we get those wounds of yours looked at before they get worse." The next twenty minutes went by in somewhat of a blur to Ranma as she was led up stairs along with other wounded and brought to an infirmary to be looked after.

**PHOENIX MOUNTAIN**

"Well normally I would say she should be dead with wounds such as these." The healer turned picking up a cream which she began to apply to Ranma's back while the demoness winced in slight pain. "The only reason you're still alive at all is the fact that your current form is that of a demon, if you had been human you would have died the instant you received such wounds." Ranma gave a yelp of pain as the woman poked her side where she had gotten slashed earlier. "But your problem is also that you are a demon, as such you are more vulnerable to demonic attacks than the attacks of a normal mortal."

With a much smaller amount of pain than she thought possible Ranma pulled on a white shirt that the healer had handed her while wondering why the woman had moved to the door to talk with the elder. With hurried steps the healer moved back to Ranma and smiled reassuringly "It would be best if you didn't change back to your birth form till at least tomorrow morning. Your body heals extremely swiftly but it needs the rest of today to repair itself enough that changing back won't hurt you." Letting out a few grumbled curse words Ranma limped into the hallway outside the healers and found the elder leaning on her staff next to the door.

"What do ya want." Ranma couldn't help the depressed tone of her voice.

"Just making sure you were alright boy." The elder leapt up onto her staff and pogoed off down the hall "I have things to do, why don't you go explore."

Lotion pogoed down the hallway and soon reached the central shaft of the mountain, even with everything she had seen within her long life it had been a shock to see the massive shaft that extended up so far into the mountain that it was impossible to see the top. There were layers of balconies set at certain levels and one would believe that only the winged ones could truly travel the mountains interior but it had been shown that the mountain had stairs leading from level to level though the elder saw only the injured, old, and infirm using them as even the amazons could leap from one balcony to the next. The old woman leapt from one balcony to the next on her way upwards until she had nearly reached the top of the mountain and found only a short hallway leading into the rock and to a large door emblazoned with a dragon, phoenix, and a centaur.

**THE ROOM OF BINDING**

The soft thud of her staff striking the door echoed in the short corridor and she was forced to wait for the door to be opened by a white haired woman in the golden armor of Lord Saffron's captain of the guard. While the woman left down the corridor leaving the room open for Lotion to enter the older woman strode into the room carrying her staff now. The staff nearly fell from her hands as she stopped within the rooms entrance and stared upon a sight that her people hadn't seen in nearly four thousand years.

The rock walls of the room were covered in bronze plate that had a detailed map of the entire world that covered three of the walls. The map was detailed enough to show every island within the seas and she even noticed one island that seemed to be…moving…across the surface of the map. A look at china showed a beautifully carved area that was easily identified as Jusenkyo but even as she looked she wondered why the map was covered with hundreds of glowing red gems inset into the bronze in certain areas. Within the mountain range itself there was nine gems and one of them, the one that was set exactly at the place of her peoples settlement, was now dark instead of giving the soft glow of the others. Several of the gems were flickering as if they were preparing to go out themselves and for some reason Lotion felt as though a darkness emanated from the map itself.

As she contemplated the map and its crystals she turned to the center of the room looking upon the large wooden table that dominated the center of the room. Even as she hopped up onto a bench she could see the top of the table was covered in a map of just the surrounding one hundred miles and that the map seemed to shimmer under the light of the candle bearing chandelier that hung from the ceiling. As she reached forward and touched the area her town had once been in the image on the table seemed to rush forward nearly giving the elder vertigo as it zoomed in on the village and showed the demons moving throughout the ruins of buildings and setting up buildings of black stone where her people had once lived.

Lotion could feel the slight warm breeze that suddenly wafted into the room and turned swiftly to observe the captain and several other elders enter the room along with a young man emitting unnatural warmth. The old woman quickly bowed to the god-king of Jusenkyo hoping that his warriors could aid in the destruction of the demons. The god strode across the room golden wings shifting slightly until he reached the table "I see you have examined the map, as you can see the crystal of binding is broken." The young god stood looking onto the table while frowning at the image of the destroyed town. "I myself would have aided in your battle but I am forced to remain within my mountain trying to use my power to strengthen the other seals so that even more darkness doesn't escape into the world. Even so there is little I can do with to strengthen the nearest barriers and they will soon fail due to the power backlash of the one under your village being destroyed."

"Why were we never told of the danger under our very feet!" Lotion's anger overpowered her respect for the fiery deity.

"He was never meant to be able to become free!" The god glared angrily at the map upon the wall and burned out crystal that resided there "The barrier should have made it impossible for him to tunnel his way out of the realm he was imprisoned in."

"We have been patient for nearly two days now Lord Saffron." Cologne leapt lightly onto the table turning to the god-king "Who is this he you have spoken of?"

"Our enemy." Saffron grew quite and turned from the elders to look upon the wall once more and his words were taken up by Kiima "Our enemy is the Lord of the Dark, Aro'naur, the King of Demons." The last was spoken quietly as if she was afraid of revealing their enemy. A staff clattered to the floor as it fell from Towel's hands shock and Cologne and Lotion stared at the phoenix and his captain respectively in pure shock.

"It can not be! He was slain!" The elders looked to the only one who had been around at the time only to see the grim expression upon the gods face.

"No. He is very much alive." Saffron turned to once again watch the map and the flickering gems.

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Descriptions.

Room of Bindings: created millions of years ago by the gods themselves it was guarded originally by the first failed attempt to make life by the gods. The beast was the first chimera, bearing the body of a loin, with the heads of a cat, dog, and bear, it bore the tail of a scorpion and the wings of a phoenix. The guardian ruled the mountain for millions of years before the Lord Saffron entered the mountain and wished to create a fortress there. Since the guardian had been created by the gods it allowed Saffron to take over guardianship of the mountain and then mysteriously vanished within the rock of the mountain itself. The room of Bindings has had new crystals added into it to denote newer dark creatures imprisoned within the world but many of the crystals still show ancient evils imprisoned long before humanity was more than a dream thought up by an ambitious deity.

Lord Saffron: Saffron is a deity of phoenix's and due to this is also a deity of fire as well. Since he is not the greater god of rebirth nor is he the greater god of fire he is considered a mid level deity when he is allowed the use of his full power on the Astral plane. While on the mortal plane his power is restrained to only a fraction of its potential. While no one knows the reason for the power of the gods being reigned in while on earth there are rumors of ancient magic's employed during humanities youth that somehow constrained the deities when they enter the world. Saffron is actually considered a young god by other deities due to his entrance into existence many billions of years after the forming of the universe, due to this he stays with his people as he grew tired of the boy, child, and pipsqueak taunts sometimes tossed his way by elder deities.

Ten Thousand Bird Wing Slice: A canon attack of Kiima's that she uses in the manga, she creates dozens of Ki blades much like Herb's only smaller and more numerous. The attack seems to be on par with Herb's attack as it cuts through rock just like Herb manages to do with his though Kiima's might be weaker than the blade tossed by the prince of the Musk due to his cleaving through more rock than hers did.

Kiima: not much to say, she is the current Captain of the Phoenix Guard and does her job with efficiency. She is quick thinking and would die for Saffron if her duty required her to. She is capable of thinking outside the box fairly swiftly and is deadly on the battlefield, seeming to be held back only by the two guards that hang around her constantly and who aren't as good a fighter as she is.


	6. Chapter 6

Hope this isn't to rough. I did a quick Beta read through it so sorry if there's any grammar errors but i really just want to get this out as i've been working on it for awhile now. And i'm sorry for the long break. I'll try and keep moving on this. It's been a few years since i updated this story and i'm sorry about that. Hopefully i can get into the swing of things again and just get on with it but i won't make any promises that i'll probably break. If this chapter doesn't seem completly up to specs it's cause i had writers block and wrote this to slam through it.

Well here's chapter 6. As usual i own nothing of Ranma 1/2.

I'm using this 00000 to show breaks between different things happening, or different people. Tell me if you think it should be different or something, still expiramenting on that end.

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**PHOENIX MOUNTAIN**

The sentry flew down landing lightly in a small opening in the trees to stand looking out into the forest near the mountain. The demons had launched several strikes at the mountain since their defeat in the forest but each assault had been turned back and sent packing. Shifting her shield the phoenix guard sighed shaking her head and wishing she hadn't been chosen for night watch, she much preferred the daytime when she could fly high and survey the battlefield from high up. Getting ready to lift off again she almost didn't hear the soft plopping sound that came from behind her, but the sentries of the night watch had been chosen from some of the more observant soldiers. Spinning around she unsheathed her sword and looked scanned the forest before looking down. Flattened to the ground was something nearly eight feet long and looking much like an oversized flattened worm. Blinking in surprise she almost didn't react fast enough when the thing suddenly reared up with the flesh seeming to split at the worms end to show a cavernous maw as the worm expanded to be nearly half as thick as she was tall. It struck lightning fast only to get the section of body that contained the maw sliced off. The guard didn't waste any time and immediately launched herself skyward knowing that this had to be related to the demons. Even with her swift action she didn't make it above the treetops before a worm lashed out from a tree and sank it's teeth into her leg dragging her from the sky.

The guards sword sliced the creatures end off and she kicked the teeth filled section aside only to hear loud plops from all around her as dozens of the worms dropped down. Spinning she lashed out with her sword only to have the worm slip underneath the blade and sink it's teeth into her. Before she could raise her sword again she was swarmed with the worms.

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Golden eyes slipped open and Ranma sat up looking at the wall for a few moments before twisting her back this way and that to make sure it was wouldn't hurt. After not feeling any pain she stood and headed to the mirror and began to unroll the bandages she wore. The end result showed her an unblemished back with no scars to mar it. "And she said it would take all night." Ranma smirked and then snagged the shirt that she had gotten earlier and pulled it on while deciding to go looking for the kitchens. Not only was she half starved but some hot water was way overdue.

Moving through the hallways of the mountain Ranma strode out onto a large balcony that gave access to the main shaft of the mountain. There were phoenix guards and Amazons leaping from place to place heading to different duties here and there. From where she was standing she could see all the way to the ground floor and noticed one room in particular that seemed to be getting more people moving in and out of it. Grabbing the railing of the balcony she leapt lightly over it and fell to one several floors below before dropping from that one down more until she landed on the ground. While she could easily have dropped the entire way she hadn't wanted to force repairs of the ground floor by impacting it hard enough to crack, if not break, the rock. Following a woman who was carrying several large bags she entered the room and slipped to the side near the door to stare at what was before her.

The room had likely once been a storeroom or possibly a very impressively sized hall for the gathering of troops. It had been turned into a makeshift medical ward, likely only one of many, with nearly every bed currently occupied by Amazons and Phoenix. Injuries ranged from sword, axe, and claw wounds to much more severe and unrepairable damage. Ranma noticed there were some who looked no older than herself, one of which looked to be missing both legs. A phoenix woman who looked to be in her early twenties was curled up on one bed weeping and Ranma shuddered when she saw the two small stumps that were all that was left of the woman's wings. Ranma had seen injured before, her father and her had trained in some very odd places and they had once ended up spending a few hours in a field hospital in the middle of a war zone. But she had never seen the sheer amount of injured that were here and this was only one room, albeit a large one.

"And these are only those who suffer from physical wounds." Ranma jumped in surprise and turned to notice one of the Amazon elders next to her, the ancient woman looked out at the injured shaking her head sadly "There are many more who have simply lost the will to fight on. Mental trauma can be as debilitating as any physical wound."

Ranma was quiet for a moment as she looked across the injured trying to think of something to say. Before she had watched so many die and ended up running for her life through the forest she might have had something to say to it all, some stupid remark about strength and skill or something. As it was she simply stood silently for a moment before speaking "How many?"

"We've lost several hundred between both forces. And that isn't counting the ones now who are too injured to fight on. So far the enemy has not launched a full scale attack on the mountain, though that is likely to do with the number of troops such an attack would require. It is only a matter of time before the strike comes though, and we must be ready for it when it does." The elder looked at the young demoness next to her wondering at the odd multiple auras that surged around her. To a healer as experienced as herself she knew the danger of having foreign life energy infused into someone, but the female had three very distinct auras. "I would like to examine your injuries."

"I'm not hurt anymore, all healed up." The statement didn't end with the usual smirk she might have worn. It was simply a statement of fact.

"I believe that you should leave such an evaluation up to the one who has been a healer for nearly two hundred years." She smiled as the grey haired female followed her to a small unoccupied room, grumbling all the way about bossy ghouls.

An hour later Ranma tugged her shirt back on quickly secured the ties on it before heading out to find the kitchen. As soon as the demoness had left another elder pogoed into the room and looked at the closed door "How bad is it?" Lotion hoped the answer wouldn't be as bad as her instincts were telling her it was going to be.

"Well I can honestly say I've never seen someone with three distinct auras, especially ones as individually different as those. In fact I'd have happily told you how insane you were to even tell me you thought someone could have three auras." She sighed as she settled back into a chair and lit her pipe "Her auras are currently doing the impossible by co-existing in some form of fragile harmony. If they were to ever break that harmony however I have no idea of the damage that could be caused, both to herself and others."

"Himself. The outsider is male." Lotion frowned as she looked after the cursed boy

The other elder hummed slightly "Never seen anyone take to their cursed form so quickly, or accept it so casually."

"That form's the only reason the boy's still alive." Lotion hopped onto a chair and settled in with a sigh "What did you see about his auras?"

"Well one is most definitely demonic, it's impressive in size but it doesn't bear the same darkness as our current enemies. The second is very obviously the boy's, it's strong and well ordered which is a surprise in one so young, even for a martial artist." She frowned as she thought of the last "The third is the one I would be most worried about. It's wild, massively powerful and barely held in check. It has the feeling of being some kind of beast though."

"And these three are working together?"

"Not together no. They seem to exist despite each other. Held in place by the boys aura as if walking a razors edge, sanity on top and madness all around."

"Could he end up a threat?"

"Not that I can see right now. If there was ever an imbalance in the auras we might end up with a problem but the boys aura seems to be having no difficulty holding the other two in line."

"I hope you're right."

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Ranma yawned as he left the kitchen three hours later. Though it was the middle of the night the cooks had been happy to part with food and hot water and he had quickly reversed his curse and scarfed down the food before thanking the cooks and then heading out to wander the hallways. Reaching another intersection he stopped as he heard a familiar voice snapping curses. Jogging down the hallway he saw Ryoga standing at another intersection ahead looking intently at one of the metal plates mounted on the wall that gave directions. Ranma smiled at realizing that he at least had found someone he knew that he could talk to, since he had no idea where his old man had run off to right now.

"Hey Ryoga!" Jogging up to the fanged boy Ranma pretended not to notice the flicker of relief that flashed across Ryoga's face.

"Ranma! I thought you were going to be laid up till tomorrow?"

"Got better faster than they thought I would. What's up?"

"I couldn't sleep." He turned and walked down a different hallway forcing Ranma to follow.

"I know how ya feel. I wandered into the medical ward by accident. I don't think I could sleep after seeing that."

Nodding grimly Ryoga turned at another intersection and Ranma noted that the plate nearby said that there was a outside balcony in the direction they were going. He wondered if he could get a look outside tonight. Even if it was night time it would be good to get at least a small glimpse of the place he was going to be staying for as long as this conflict continued. Looking up and seeing how far ahead Ryoga had gotten made him remember to stick close to make sure the lost boy didn't get lost.

"Hey Ryoga wait up!" He rushed forward to catch up "Let's get a look outside the mountain, then we can find a place to train."

Ryoga was about to answer when Ranma held up his hand stopping the other boy "You hear that?"

Listening for a moment the fanged boy frowned as a faint hissing sound was heard. Moving to the wall he placed his hand against it and felt the faintest of vibrations as something moved within the rock. Before he could say anything a strange green liquid dripped from the cieling and splattered on the hallways floor causing the rock to hiss and pop as the liquid ate into it. Ranma hopped back and watched the hole as something dropped free with a loud smack to land on the ground.

"Is that a worm?" They had seen several huge animals in this part of china but a worm that size was impressive even by those standards. It looked nearly eight feet long but was only about a foot thick.

Before Ranma could answer the worm suddenly reared up and expanded to be nearly four feet thick even as the end facing the boys opened to show rows of needle sharp teeth set in a cavernous mouth that seemed much too big for its body. Before either boy could get beyond their surprise a thick stream of green liquid burst towards them.

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The guard flew in to land lightly on a tree branch before looking around "Melana, where are you?" He kept his spear ready as he glided down to land on ground that was torn up as if it had been overturned not long ago. Staying quiet the guard moved forward quietly as he noticed something glint on the ground nearby. When he was close enough he could see it was a guards sword and he barely held back a curse. The blade was mostly stained with yellowish black muck that he could only assume came from whatever had killed the other guard. Reaching up he gripped the gem he wore attached to a leather strap and was about to send a general alarm to all the guards and the mountain when the stone in his hand warmed and a message was received speaking of an attack on the mountain. Snarling a curse he took to the air to head back to his home to aid in the defense when the ground below him buckled upwards and something massive smashed free into the night air. The rumbling roar shook the surrounding forest as the massive worms maw gaped wide. Staring in surprise the guard barely got out of the way as the creature snapped it's jaws shut on where he had been hovering. For coming in at nearly thirty feet in length the creature was extremely fast and the guard had to gain altitude before he felt safe enough to stop and get a better look. While he didn't recognize the species and it looked completely earthbound, he stayed ready to move quickly as most demonic creatures like this one would have something beyond their size and teeth to win a fight.

Gripping his gem he sent an alarm to all guards of the creatures presence and received replies from seven that they were on their way to aid. Of the others, most were already engaged in battle with other such beasts and three were harrying a small group of the more standard demons back into the forest. Taking his hand away from the gem he barely managed to dodge as a great gout of liquid spewed upwards from the creatures mouth to pass through the area he had been in. "Stupid oversized fish bait!" The phoenix guard glanced at the singed feathers on his left wing, and the liquid hadn't even actually touched them. He hoped the others would arrive in time to aid as he rushed down to see if his spear would be effective.

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"What the hell is this thing!" Ryoga's shout echoed down the hall as the boy released his grip from the wall and dropped to smoking stone below.

"Bet it's part of that demon army!" Ranma shouted as he dropped from the cieling to slam a kick into the middle of the creature. The worm compressed down to nearly being flat where Ranma's foot impacted and the floor underneath shattered but as soon as he leapt off of it the things body sprang back to full size and showed no damage from the impact. The worm hissed angrily and spewed more green gunk at them causing the two to dodge out of the way again even as more holes opened in the ceiling and walls allowing more of the worms to enter the hallway. Ryoga snatched off several of his bandannas and flung them at one of the worms watching in satisfaction as gashes were slashed into the creatures hide.

A ringing sounded down the hallways of the mountain as the alarm was sounded to rouse those who slept and bring them into the fight. Ranma and Ryoga sprinted down the hallway to avoid the worms behind them while looking for others. Turning one corner they came across the sparse remains of a phoenix guard, most of her melted away by the acid spewed by the worms. Both boys stumbled back, Ranma trying to hold down the food he had eaten not long ago, and found themselves boxed in by more worms ahead.

Before either boy could formulate a plan to deal with the worms ahead and behind the hallway began to shake and a rumble sounded deep within the rock. The worms behind stopped and the ones ahead began to back away even as the rumble grew closer. With a loud crack the wall burst open just ahead of them and Ryoga pulled Ranma back as a worm three times the size of the ones they had been fighting came through the wall and then impacted the other wall and began boring through that one. As soon as the large worm had disappeared down its self made tunnel its smaller brethren began to advance on the boys again. Neither of whom waited a second before running into the tunnel after the larger worm.

Cologne used a ki blade to slash another parasite apart and leapt back to watch the worms numbers dwindle. Just as she was about to jump back into the fight the wall nearby rumbled before bursting inwards as a much larger parasite smashed through and slithered into the room. The creature reared up getting ready to spew acid onto warriors who were just recovering from its entry when it was suddenly smashed down into the rock by two figures who leapt off of it even as Phoenix guards swarmed the thing and chopped it apart. The old woman chuckled as she saw it was the two outsider boys as they landed near her.

"It is good to see you are both still alive."

"It'd take more than those things to beat us." Ranma said smirking.

Before Cologne could respond the entire room began to shudder and shake. The shaking got worse and worse before one entire wall and part of the ceiling smashed inwards and a truly massive worm entered the room having dug its way through the entire outer sections of the mountain. It's body was festooned with spears and swords and even as it smashed into the room the defenders could see several phoenix guard slashing at it while trying to avoid having it smash them into the walls or ceilings. The creature reared up with its jaws opening and acid starting to drip out from between sharp teeth. Ranma could hear several amazons shout something in Chinese and make a break for the doorways. The giant worm lifted its maw upwards and Ranma could see the green acid start to pour forward, just as a massive fireball flashed by overhead and into the creatures mouth detonating with a loud boom. The giant worm shrieked and jerked upwards shattering stone as skin split and smoke and fire burst free.

"Get out of _my_ mountain!" This shout was followed by fireball after fireball flashing forward and down the creatures throat causing muffled detonation after muffled detonation. The creatures skin was taking on a darker color and smoke was starting to rise from it as rents burned open and flames poured out. Both boys spun to look up at the figure floating in the air who was throwing the fireballs. The first thing Ranma noticed was the sheer power radiating from the phoenix as he launched attack after attack into the creature. The second was that he was different from the other phoenix, his wings bore traces of flame around them and the feathers were golden where all others of the phoenix people had colors ranging from black to white but no gold.

Finally the large creature stopped twitching and lay still while the defenders cheered. Ranma and Ryoga both ended up with swords given to them by the elder Cologne to help in killing the worms that were still around. The amazons and phoenix divided into groups and began to hunt the remaining worms.

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**DESTROYED VILLAGE**

**EDGE OF THREE TRIBES TERRITORY**

"No signs of locals detected, the village looks abandoned sir."

"Evidence of damage?"

"Pretty heavy in some areas, other look to be completely untouched."

"Set down, check it out."

"Yes sir."

The two choppers circled for a moment more before one swept down and offloaded seven soldiers who dashed to the nearest building, taking cover by it. As that chopper lifted off the next moved in though it didn't land. Doors slid open on the sides and two figures dropped free to impact the ground with a loud crack. The two powered armor troopers stood as their systems came fully online. The brown armor was mostly sleek but for a few more bulging protrusions here and there. At full height they stood nearly seven and a half feet tall.

"Dragon one and two down. Beginning sweep." The trooper was relying on his HUD and advanced sensors to pick up anything that might be out of place. Each step was a loud thump as the two sets of powered armor moved along with the soldiers acting as scouts to check buildings. It wasn't until they had split up to check more buildings faster that the first of them went missing.

The sweep had cleared most of the village before they found what had happened to their scout. As they got closer to one of the larger buildings they could hear a loud crunch from down a small alley. Turning towards it Dragon two shined his light down it only to illuminate a huge form crouched over the missing scout. The fact it was eating the scout was enough reason for what happened next. With a shout the remaining scouts opened up with their guns only to have the creature roar and charge down the alley to slam into the men throwing them in all directions before slamming and arm into Dragon two sending him smashing into a building.

Ming would admit that he had never seen anything like it. A hulking brute with leathery skin, and fire in its eyes and mouth. Along with the huge horns and spiked back it was damned intimidating. He swung the heavy gatling gun into position and opened fire. The creature hadn't bore any damage from the smaller guns of the soldiers but there was no way it was going to ignore such a huge caliber weapon. The thundering roar of the gun drowned out the creatures shrieks as blood burst from it as it was literally torn apart by the heavy caliber rounds. The whir of the gun slowed and finally stopped as Ming looked at the corpse of the creature. Even with as big and fast as it was he knew that there was no way that one thing could have dealt with the entire village without someone getting away.

Dragon two strode forward "My HUD's suffering interference from something."

It was the first time that Ming realized his was as well, the HUD was slightly fuzzy and the suits uplink to command was completely offline. "We need to find out if there are more of those things." He turned in time to see an armored fist flashing towards him, the blow slammed into his chest flinging him backwards. Armor cracked stone when he impacted sliding backwards.

"What are you doing Chen!" He looking up as the other Dragon unit approached only to stare in shock. most of the face place of Dragon two was gone showing nothing but a skull behind it with glowing points of white light shining from its eye sockets. Ming didn't even hesitate, he gripped his gatling gun, slung it into position and opened fire. The other Dragon unit used it's thrusters to skid sideways even as it brought its own gatling gun into position for firing. Activating his own thrusters Ming slid backwards and into and alley before scrambling to his feet and running. He wasn't sure where he was trying to get but it was anywhere but here. He made it to the other end of the alley before the wall next to him exploded and a red armored fist smashed into him sending him crashing into another building.

"Command! This is Dragon one. Unknown hostile force engaged, all friendlies down. Requesting immediate retrieval..." He didn't get to say more as soft clacking was heard here and there in the darkness and skeletons, large and small, rose all around. With a horrible feeling in his gut he realized what had happened to the people of the town. Gripping his gun he started to swing it into position just as the wall nearby exploded into splinters and red armor flashed into view before his arms were grabbed and he was lifted into the air. The huge creature began to pull and Ming could hear the groan from the armor as the creature began to laugh.

"What the hell are you laughing at!" Ming activated the booster on his right boot and slammed a kick into the creatures chin that sent it backwards and into a wall. Gripping his gatling gun he swung it into position and opened up on the creature as it stood only to have the bullets ricochet off as it stood. He would have continued to fire if a sword of black flame hadn't suddenly ripped through his back and out his front. Staring at it he faintly heard another of the creatures laughing and saw Dragon two's armor tromp into the room even as the world faded away.

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Parasite Worm: They are what they sound like. They come from one of the lower hell realms. They normally live in the guts of those demons who are so large that you could mistake them for mountains. They are highly resistant to impacts and smashing blows but are weak to edged weaponry. Due to the fact that any martial artist will reinforce a blade with ki to make it cut even better than normal this means the worms are very weak to any skilled edged weapon user. They usually travel in groups, always with a large leader and several big middle sized ones as well.

Dragon units: For those wondering when the Chinese ended up with powered armor you have to remember that Gosunkugi was able to get a mail order set of powered armor in the Manga. I'm simply expanding on that by saying that if there's a company out there who can make some crappy cheap powered armor then the militaries very likely have something like them as well. The Dragon units are very expensive, and when I say expensive i mean it. We're talking on the order of being near something like the F-22 and other high tech fighter jets, the F-22 happens to cost around 361 million per plane. It costs them over 200 million to build a Dragon unit. There aren't a huge number of them as building tanks is easier, vastly cheaper, and they pack a hell of a lot more punch than the Dragon units can. But the Dragon units are good for urban combat so they will be deployed in such situations. They can also be deployed faster than tanks can due to air transit.

In truth you won't see that many Dragon units as they are so expensive and hard to replace that the military would happily throw away an entire tank brigade than lose a single Dragon unit.


End file.
